Publication: letter on Ivory trade policy in Science

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Alongside a large interdisciplinary team, Sol coauthored a letter today in Science today explaining that recommendations to limit trade in legal ivory are based on evidence-based research. This was a response to an earlier article by Biggs et al. arguing that recommendations to limit trade were based on arbitrary values. We also point out that transparency in international negotiations are an important element of the process, in contrast to the recommendation by Biggs et al. to speed up international decision-making by negotiating international trade in ivory behind closed doors. 

Read the letter here. 

Read research by the lab on the global black market for ivory and international trade policy experiments here.

Paper: The Distribution of Environmental Damages

Solomon Hsiang has a new joint paper with Paulina Oliva, and Reed Walker reviewing and exploring what is known about the distributional consequences of environmental damages and the benefits of environmental policy. They provide a general framework for empiricists and explore what is known in the context of pollution, deforestation, and climate. The NBER working paper is available online here. The article is forthcoming in the Review of Environmental Economics and Policy.

Op-Ed in the Guardian: Would a legal ivory trade save elephants?

Solomon Hsiang and Nitin Sekar published an op-ed in the Guardian, in answer to the question: "Would a legal ivory trade save elephants or speed up the massacre?"

The op-ed discusses the recent research findings from the Lab that legal ivory sales in 2008 increased poaching, rather than decreased poaching as the policy intended.

These findings were cited in editorials by the New York Times and the Guardian calling for stronger action and regulation (or total bans) of legal ivory trade.

Negotiations for creating a permanent legal global ivory market were halted at the recent meeting of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species, in part due to these research findings.

Paper: Effects of legalization on black markets

Solomon Hsiang and Nitin Sekar have a new NBER Working Paper Does legalization reduce black market activity? Evidence from a global ivory experiment and elephant poaching data.